@Adrian: Sorry everyone ganged up on you, I was just about to do the same. If anything, XP and Vista are taking the hurting. The market share for XP is still vastly larger than OS X. But you walk into any college class these days, and all you see are lit up Apple logos staring back at you. I’d be very interested to see 5-10 years time how the market shifts as students introduce Macs into the work force.

@Rod: iPods are like a gateway drug. Once you pick one up, you’ve already turned and pretty soon you’ll be lighting up a MacBook in no time. People just need a bit of convincing is all.

Link: http://techfold.com/2007/12/08/the-unbearable-pain-of-competing-with-apple-samsungs-sad-christmas-tale/

Yesterday, I tried to not buy an iPod.

Specifically, I tried to buy a Samsung P2 - 4gb, touchscreen, bluetooth, video, music. I looks sweet, has a great UI, is tiny and slim, and hits an awesome price point at $149 - perfect for Christmas gift giving.

Sadly, Samsung is not Apple. Let us count the ways in which Samsung f–ked up and put an iPod in my wife’s stocking…

Link, post follows: http://techfold.com/2007/12/08/the-unbearable-pain-of-competing-with-apple-samsungs-sad-christmas-tale/

Yesterday, I tried to not buy an iPod.

Specifically, I tried to buy a Samsung “P2? - 4gb, touchscreen, bluetooth, video, music. I looks sweet, has a great UI, is tiny and slim, and hits an awesome price point at $149 - perfect for Christmas gift giving.

Sadly, Samsung is not Apple. Let us count the ways in which Samsung f–ked up and put an iPod in my wife’s stocking…

1. STOCK: Christmas is the make-or-break retail season for consumer electronics. Yesterday, I went to five retail stores: two Futureshops, one Best Buy, one London Drugs, and even Zellers. Each store (except Zellers, which apparently doesn’t carry MP3 players over $50) had a full array of iPods in their full spectrum of prices and capacities. They were flying off the shelves, and the staff kept on carrying out more from the back. Samsung? Not one. Anywhere. In the ENTIRE CITY. Someone at a Futureshop told me they were on backorder from the manufacturer. How do you let your retail distribution network run out of stock two weeks before Christmas??! Are you kidding? Nope. The Futureshop that told me about the backorder didn’t expect any until January.
2. PRICING: Every staff member at every store new the iPod product line inside and out, and new exactly how each was priced. Each store had identical pricing for each item - my expectations were consistently met. For the Samsung P2, I saw $149, $169, $179, and $219. That’s almost a 50% spread on price. Talk about sowing confusion and alienating customers…
3. POSITIONING: Obviously, every store had the iPod’s front and center. OK, makes sense. But the Samsung’s were’nt just out of the way - they were generally dirty, unplugged and battery drained, mislabelled, and generally dissheveled. Does Samsung not have a freaking Retail Merchandiser in Winnipeg? The city draws a shopping population of over 1,000,000 people, the majority of who probably get their consumer electronics from under 30 retail locations. Why doesn’t Samsung have someone out there doing the rounds every day to ensure product condition, correct information, pricing, etc.? I know PEPSI does it on a weekly basis, sending reps around to 7-11’s and other retail channels. Why can’t Samsung?
4. EDUCATION: That same merchandiser should be educating holiday staff at the retail outlets as to the product names and features. Most staff that I spoke too seemed surprised that the product existed, and when I pointed to the demo model reacted as if they’d never seen one before. Insanity.

The moral of the story? Apple has it together. Total value chain management. Prescient inventory loading of their retail partners. Flawless execution. Samsung doesn’t even appear to be making an effort. Is it any wonder Apple dominates?

The percentage of Mac users with problems is shrinking, but the raw numbers are going up. Market share is increasing faster than stability.

…and 10.4.1 was definitely worse than 10.5.1.

I recall there was plenty of whing and complaining when 10.1 debuted. There was more when 10.2 came out. 10.3 was greeted by a chorus of “just more eye candy” and complaints about the declining stability of OS X. Tiger was considered the most minor of upgrades by quite a few people, after they complained about the awful crashes left and right.

The truth is, OS X has gotten much more stable, much more refined, and much more powerful with every major release. Yet with every release, we get more of the same old complaints - too much eye candy, not enough stability.

The fact that Apple is now selling as many Macs in a single quarter than they used to sell in an entire year means that even if fewer than half the people experience problems on a percent basis (i.e. OS X is twice as reliable), more than twice the number of people will experience problems than before, in terms of raw numbers.

For example, let’s say there are 1000 users and 10% of them experience serious problems. That’s 100 users whining and bitching on the forums.

After a few years, the product now has 10,000 users and only 2% experience serious problems. That’s 200 users screaming on the message boards.

Which software is more reliable? Would you go with Software version A or version B if you had a choice?

Just because many more people are experiencing issues doesn’t mean OS X has gotten worse if the Mac user base has grown much faster than reliability has improved, as the above example shows. The fact is, there are WAY more Mac users today than there were when Tiger made its debut.

Tom:
Sorry, my “bells and whistles” statement was a bit rash, and I do agree that the stuff under the hood is more important.

Leopard is only just up to “10.5.1″ and many people seem to be having no trouble with it. And it’s not about “bells and whistles”; it’s about “64 bit”. Think “server sales”.

Leopard is rock solid on my G5 dual 2GHz, ‘course I don’t have any system altering utilities messing it up.